Google's next mobile operating system, Android 4.2, has been officially launched. The update, which was previously rumored to carry the moniker Key Lime Pie but instead carries the "Jelly Bean" branding, brings a ton of new things to Android, including gesture typing, updates to the Google Play store, and multiple user accounts for tablet users.

Starting with Google Play, the store now offers billing preferences and easier-to-access in-app purchases, and users can now check on the apps they have downloaded via a widget, rather than having to dig for recent purchases in the Google Play store interface.

Google has also altered some features in the notification panel. It now features a Quick Settings bar that allows users to conveniently toggle options like Wi-Fi and Airplane mode without having to navigate to the Settings panel. Users can access the Quick Settings bar by swiping down twice and can tweak it to their specific needs by giving priority to the options that they use the most. Google Now, a digital personal assistant app which shares some features with Apple's Siri, also interacts with the Quick Settings panel. Users can ask it to do things like adjust the brightness or toggle on Bluetooth, and it will perform that function for them.

Gmail for Android has also been updated with the much-needed, pinch-to-zoom feature that users have coveted on other mobile operating systems for eons. Users can now pinch to zoom in on text within an email, as well as swipe to archive or delete a message. The swipe feature is configurable by the user.

In addition to the plethora of new UI changes, Google has introduced a feature that should help tech-centric households that share a single Android tablet. Android 4.2 allows each user to set up an individual account, install their own apps, and tweak the Settings to their preference. The accounts are easily identifiable by a name and thumbnail photo. The Play Store will also keep track of which apps have been installed for which users and parents will still be able to lock down restrictions for certain user accounts.

Rounding out the list of noteworthy features is native support for gesture typing and Miracast wireless displays. Apps providing gesture typing functionality for Android already exist, but the support at the operating system level mean that 4.2 users get the functionality merely by upgrading. The potential for deep integration is there, as well, with gesture typing also including predictive results for what words you might want to enter next (so swiping "Thank" will offer "thank you" as a potential response). The Miracast support means that you can stream your Android 4.2's display and audio to any device which supports the Miracast protocol. TVs with Miracast support built-in should start showing up next year.

A new "Photo Sphere" camera feature will also allow multiple photos to be stitched together to create one large photo—unlike Apple's Panorama mode, Photo Sphere appears to use multiple individual pictures rather than taking a single picture in one wide sweep, though the final result should be somewhat similar.

Android 4.2 will debut on the Nexus 10 tablet, the Nexus 4 phone. We're expecting its availability soon on other supported Nexus handsets, like the just-bumped Nexus 7. Stay tuned to Ars for the official review of Android 4.2 in the coming weeks as it hits our handsets.

Update: Google did not announce security features that were widely anticipated by many (including Ars). When the company's announcements came out by surprise this afternoon, incorrect information regarding these features was originally included in this article.

Florence Ion
Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.

54 Reader Comments

Any enterprise that has been holding on to Blackberry because of security concerns with Android will probably wait to see, test, and research 4.2 in the wild rather than relying on a "now it's actually secure" press release. A year or two would be conservative (and if you're still using Blackberry, you're very conservative).

Any enterprise that has been holding on to Blackberry because of security concerns with Android will probably wait to see, test, and research 4.2 in the wild rather than relying on a "now it's actually secure" press release. A year or two would be conservative (and if you're still using Blackberry, you're very conservative).

To steal a quote-style from their rival, "Its the most secure version of Android yet!"

In addition to the plethora of new UI changes, Google has also introduced a feature that should help tech-centric households that share a single Android tablet. Android 4.2 allows each user to set up an individual account, install their own apps, and tweak the Settings to their preference.

These really are the droids I am looking for! Huzzah! Now I just need to update my nook color and we finally have a household tablet! Huzzah! Huzzah! (Did I mention Huzzah?!)

A lot of that new stuff (liek the notification quick-links) and the guesture-keyboard has been in the ICS S3 already.Hell, I got a swype keyboard, and shortcuts on the Droid Incredible I use as a mini-tablet these days, and thats on gingerbread.

Android 4.2 also features a Customization Center, which will enable users to completely customize the look of their device's interface without having to root it or install custom ROMs. Users can install icon packs, language packs, different backgrounds, alternative launchers, ringtones, and filters, which can instantly change the look and feel of the home screen with just one tick, kind of like Instagram filters.

What does this mean in practice? Will someone be able to take a random Galaxy phone and install the AOSP interface? Or just bits and pieces of it?

"Android 4.2 will include Security-Enhanced Linux, essentially a set of kernel add-ons that keep applications from running rampant. Users can enable this feature to control how much access certain applications have to their handset’s root files, ensuring that those files are sealed from prying eyes—or apps, in this case."

I hope they actually turn SELinux on and set it to enforce by default, this phrasing makes it sound like it'll be in something like "permissive" mode as is possible with most modern Linux distros. It shouldn't be too hard to write policies to lock Android down a little further, without impacting existing applications, since Android already uses Linux' discretionary access controls to keep applications from interfering with each other or the system, making them mandatory with SELinux should be a pretty trivial change[1].

I hope this gives Apple the kick up it's arse it needs to introduce multiple accounts to iOS (even though that unfortunately would be nearly a year away still with iOS 7 I guess). An iPad being a single user device really reduces my ability to justify buying one.

...no mention of gesture mode (buried in the bottom of their 'what's new' page under accessibility features), which i think is a very big deal: it could well signal a sea change amongst touch UI devices for much-needed eyes-free operation...

I hope this gives Apple the kick up it's arse it needs to introduce multiple accounts to iOS (even though that unfortunately would be nearly a year away still with iOS 7 I guess). An iPad being a single user device really reduces my ability to justify buying one.

I think they expect you to buy one per person. I constantly get emailed by them to buy $300+ devices for every little occasion. "Sending your kid back to school? Buy them an iPod Touch", "It's Valentine's day, buy her an iPhone", "Buy a iPad for your mother for Mother's day". What? I wouldn't spend $500 on my wife at Christmas so I'm certainly not going to spend it on my Mother on Mother's day. I don't care if you gave me life, that was decades ago.

That's a shame. Because the customization center sounds like something I've wanted for a while.

I admit... it's largely because I want to change the launcher from a red Droid 4 boot up graphic, to a blue one (and I know several people who want it in green), without rooting... Minor, sure. But it would have been nice.

A lot of that new stuff (liek the notification quick-links) and the guesture-keyboard has been in the ICS S3 already.Hell, I got a swype keyboard, and shortcuts on the Droid Incredible I use as a mini-tablet these days, and thats on gingerbread.

True, but being in pure Android means all Android devices will have these features as a starting point, i.e. the bare minimum. That's great news.

Count me out for multiple accounts. There's this swell of feature-creep where, one-by-one, people are asking for the kind of features that you want in a desktop, but not really on a slate.

No, I really want multiple users on a slate. My kids can share access to a single physical device. Allowing them each their own logins so that things like game progress and save games are distinct is what I'd like to have.

Heck, with that I'd even let them borrow my phone on occasion. Then they could sign in with their account and their friend's phone numbers all show up and everything. Sounds like a great big bag of WIN to me.

Of course, I won't be surprised if there's some sort of subtle fuck ups in the implementation that makes it near-worthless except for some very specific use cases.

Security "advances". It cant work as long as users can install apps that are non-certified. The Apps are installed with SU- /Root access. Root can do anything on the system.

What are you talking about? Apps on Android don't get installed with root access, and never have.

shompa wrote:

This security problem is unique to Android and does not effect the other 700 million Unix/Linux computers/devices. Why? Because Android is the only platform that allows root access without password (in this case during software install). This is exactly the same reason why Windows have such much security problems: Most users runs as administrator and programs are installed as admin without need of admin password.

On all other Unix platforms (beside iOS) each program need root password to be installed. This means that the virus need a user that type a password. iOS can ignore this problem because of controlled appstore + sandboxing + app certificates that can be revoked remotely.

Seriously, what are you talking about? Android applications are *more* restricted than traditional Linux apps -- they simply can not get root access, can't even prompt the user to enter their password to get root access.

Further, Android uses sandboxing of applications, and did this before iOS did. It assigns a unique Linux uid to each application, which has very restricted access to only the things that application should be allowed to get to. That's how the whole permission system works. It's not like the permissions you agree to when you install an app are just suggestions with no enforcement behind them.

Amped for multi-user.. maybe I'm weird, but I don't like people borrowing my tablet since it has access to my gmail (and some other things).. I can see Google heavily advertising this feature to family's as Christmas approaches..

All the other updates sound great as well.. Let's hope this finally kicks ESPN's ass into making their apps tablet friendly, all my other frequently used apps have been upgraded a while ago

Count me out for multiple accounts. There's this swell of feature-creep where, one-by-one, people are asking for the kind of features that you want in a desktop, but not really on a slate.

No, I really want multiple users on a slate. My kids can share access to a single physical device. Allowing them each their own logins so that things like game progress and save games are distinct is what I'd like to have.

Heck, with that I'd even let them borrow my phone on occasion. Then they could sign in with their account and their friend's phone numbers all show up and everything. Sounds like a great big bag of WIN to me.

Of course, I won't be surprised if there's some sort of subtle fuck ups in the implementation that makes it near-worthless except for some very specific use cases.

This is *REALLY* needed for tablets to take off in education settings. Without this, sharing tablets in schools is a nightmare.

That page also mentions many 4.1 features. It is sort of a "what's cool in Android right now", not a changelog. That said, Ars is the only reputable place I have seen make those claims. I think it is appropriate that someone from Ars clarify who/what their source is for this.

That page also mentions many 4.1 features. It is sort of a "what's cool in Android right now", not a changelog. That said, Ars is the only reputable place I have seen make those claims. I think it is appropriate that someone from Ars clarify who/what their source is for this.

The Verge has a video of interviews at Google about what is new and nothing was mention about Customization Center, that feature was a know lie in the rumors. (i don't think that they really will omit such big feature in a promotional video)

thdwlsdn wrote:

fferitt25 wrote:

And most Users will continue waiting only to find out 6 months to 1 year from now their device will be excluded from the update.

I know! I just now received my update for 4.1 a few days ago. This whole fragmentation issue has me envying iOS users lately.

Security "advances". It cant work as long as users can install apps that are non-certified. The Apps are installed with SU- /Root access. Root can do anything on the system.

What are you talking about? Apps on Android don't get installed with root access, and never have.

If you have root access to your phone is trivial for a app do everything with that level of access. (get your wifi passwords, SMS's, contacts, etcs...)Typically is installed a app to manage what apps can have that permissions or not, but if a user roots is phone he should manage is apps with careful when they ask for root permissions.

The Google official announcement for 4.2 talks about the Nexus 7 specifically, but the Nexus 7 page still lists 4.1 as the version. I wonder when the update will come out? Possibly when the other new devices ship in mid-November? It would be nice if it was shipping now but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Yeah, I've pulled the unconfirmed portions of the article, pending our full reviews. We have devices on the way, but the storm is honking things up for us.

When you guys do a full review it would be worth mentioning which features were just rumor. The customization center and security improvements were some pretty major selling points. After reading about them here no doubt many Ars readers would assume they were confirmed and might even make purchases based on those claims.